Sex Work Matters

Melissa Hope Ditmore is a post-doctoral fellow at NDRI. She has investigated ethics in research, the effects of police raids on sex workers and trafficked persons, and violence against sex workers. She is an author on the three reports produced by the Sex Workers Project. Melissa Ditmore has written about sex work, migration and trafficking for The Lancet and SIECUS Report. She is a contributor to Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered (2005) and The Affective Turn (2007.)Antonia Levy is a member of the PapertigerTV collective and a part-timer organizer for her union, the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY. She has been co-chair of several academic/activist conferences and workshops, including Sex Work Matters: Beyond Divides and the Second Annual Feminist Pedagogy Conference.Alys Willman is a feminist economist specializing in gender, violence and illicit markets. She is the author of What's Money Got to Do With It? (2009) and numerous articles in both academic and grassroots publications. She has produced a documentary Mateando en la Gran Manzana on Argentine immigration to New York. Alys Willman has worked in a dozen countries throughout Latin America with NGOs, the United Nations and the World Bank. She holds a doctorate in Urban and Public Policy from The New School University in New York.

'"Sex Work Matters" is destined to become a classic in its field, offering fresh new perspectives on romantic and economic taboos in the lives of sex workers. The future of research on erotic commerce depends on these powerful voices, informed arguments and timeless ideas.' - Tracy Quan, author, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl and Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, www.tracyquan.net 'Sex Work Matters digs deep into the unexpected ways that sexual commerce is embedded in the global pleasure and leisure industries. It's an essential guide for anyone intrigued by how sex work is moving beyond the margins and into the center of the public square.' - Melissa Gira Grant, columnist, $pread magazine, Valleywag.com, www.melissagira.com 'This book makes a major contribution to understanding the everyday lives, experiences and perspectives of sex workers. It offers a rich body of evidence that shatters the myths that have gained purchase in policy debates in the UK and elsewhere. It should be essential reading for everyone working in this field - academics, practitioners and policy makers alike.' - Andrea Cornwall, editor, Development with a Body

• Introduction: Beyond the Sex in Sex Work - Alys Willman and Antonia LevyPart I: Beyond Divides: New Frameworks for Understanding the Sex Industry1. Sex Work Now: What the Blurring Boundaries around the Sex Industry Means for Sex Work, Research and Activism - Barbara G. Brents and Kathryn Hausbeck2. The (Crying) Need for Different Kinds of Research - Laura Agustín3. The Meaning of the Whore: How Feminist Theories on Prostitution Shape Research on Female Sex Workers - Juline A. KokenPart II: Managing Multiple Roles4. To Love, Honour, and Strip: An Investigation of Exotic Dancer Romantic Relationships - Mindy S. Bradley-Engen and Carrie M. Hobbs5. Sex and the Unspoken in Male Street Prostitution - Kerwin Kaye6. enforced ab/normalcy: the sexworker hijras and the (re)appropriation of s/he identity - Mashrur Shahid HossainPart III: Money and Sex7. Let's Talk About Money - Alys Willman8. Show Me the Money: A Sex Worker Reflects on Research into the Sex Industry - Jo Weldon9. Selling Sex: Women's Participation in the Sex Industry - Melissa PetroPart IV: Sex Work and the State10. Pimping the Pueblo: State Regulated Commercial Sex in Neoliberal Mexico - Patty Kelly11. Deviant Girls, Small-Scale Entrepreneurs and the Regulation of German Sex Workers - Anne Dölemeyer, Rebecca Pates, Daniel Schmidt12. Sex Work, Communities and Public Policy in the UK - Maggie O'Neill and Jane PitcherPart V: Organizing Beyond Divides13. Sex Workers' Rights Activism in Europe: Orientations from Brussels - Giulia GarofaloConclusion: Pushing Boundaries in Sex Work Activism and Research - Melissa Ditmore